Rebirth 86: I use games to kick open the door to the world

Akira Nakamura is very enthusiastic, even a little too enthusiastic.

This is entirely because of Contra's performance.

The total sales time took about a month, and 300,000 copies were sold.

This result is already quite good for an average medium-sized game company. If it continues to launch sequels, the results will definitely be even better.

So Nakamura Akira now regards Zuo Zhen as one of his own.

"Is it really impossible to increase the production of cassettes? Contra should still have more potential."

Nakamura Akira poured himself a glass of sake, and then said with regret: "No, the cassette production department is not within my scope of authority. I can only indirectly influence it. Recently, we have more important game project arrangements, which can give Contra Thirty It’s not easy to have ten thousand cassettes.”

The important projects are probably Dragon Quest and The Legend of Zelda.

The former is a game produced by a well-known Japanese game producer and a well-known cartoonist. If a celebrity endorses it, it will definitely get more preferential treatment.

The latter is the first-party game of NGS in this world. If you don’t take care of your own family, who will you take care of?

As for Zuo Zhen, he is really just a little-known figure among them. No matter how successful Contra is, they will not take it seriously from the beginning.

"Zuo Zhen-san, don't be discouraged. Because of the success of your Contra, the higher-ups have noticed you. Your second Squirrel War will definitely get more cassette production."

Akira Nakamura was worried that Zuozhen would be unhappy with this arrangement at such a young age, so he wanted to comfort him a little more to prevent Zuozhen from breaking his defense.

But he still underestimated Zuo Zhen.

"Well, I'm fine. Contra's current results are pretty good."

But when you say this, you must still feel unhappy in your heart.

Zuo Zhen accepted that the results were not good. Now it is because of external factors that the game cannot achieve better results. I am really unhappy.

You still need to be strong in order to strike iron.

The good thing is that I already have a bit of fame, so NGS will pay more attention to signing my second game.

Nakamura Akira took Zuo Zhen to drink all night, but Zuo Zhen couldn't get used to drinking. He only accompanied him for two drinks before declining, and then the two of them said goodbye. They will formally meet at the NGS headquarters tomorrow morning to talk about Contra. and subsequent games.

At night, Zuo Zhen returned to the hotel and did not fall asleep directly. Instead, he tossed and turned and thought about Contra.

We can't just let it go.

This game still has a lot of potential.

If we can sell out all 300,000 copies in a month, we will definitely have a guaranteed sales volume of 400,000 to 500,000 copies.

NGS must at least allow it to produce an additional 200,000 boxes of Contra cassettes.

This kind of thing can only be fought for by oneself, and cannot rely on others.

So I have to work hard to do something more tomorrow.

After making up his mind, Zuo Zhen couldn't sleep even more.

So since I couldn't sleep, I simply made plans overnight and thought about what I should say tomorrow.

What I have to sigh is that my body is much better now than in my previous life. As expected, youth is my capital, and I can stay active even if I stay up all night.

The next morning, Zuo Zhen left the hotel and headed to NGS headquarters.

This time Nakamura Akira was waiting for Zuozhen at the door. He had been drinking all night yesterday, but this morning Nakamura Akira acted like a normal person and very enthusiastically invited Zuozhen to follow him upstairs.

The treatment this time was obviously much better. It was not like before that I had to find someone alone.

Nakamura Akira took Zuo Zhen all the way to the game development negotiation office.

Also coming in were the specialists responsible for financial transactions, the specialists dealing with data information, and Kiyoshi Takemoto, the game producer who also appeared last time.

The specialist in charge of capital transactions took out some information and handed it to Zuo Zhen: "Zuo Zhen-san, this is the sales data of the game during this month. All funds will be transferred to the cross-border account in your name according to your request."

Zuo Zhen took the data sheet. This data introduced in great detail the daily sales performance of the game from the first day to two days ago.

The sales performance was the best on the first day, with 20,000 cassettes sold, of which North America accounted for more than half. Subsequently, the sales volume was around 10,000 every day.

This sales data is the most intuitive for games.

Some games are announced with great momentum at the beginning, but then sluggish due to insufficient gameplay, then the sales results on the first day can basically determine the future of the game.

Contra is obviously not included in this list.

Because sales did not decrease much after a week, and even experienced a small increase on the tenth day, returning to the daily sales of 20,000 boxes.

Zuo Zhen raised his head and pointed at the tenth day's data and asked, "Can I ask why this day's data suddenly sold a lot?"

The specialist in charge of the data business immediately explained: "It's like this. The day before that day is the sales day of a monthly game magazine. According to our analysis, your game should be affected by this article."

A magazine was handed to Zuo Zhen.

BEEP monthly game information magazine.

"On page fifty-seven."

Turn to page 57, this is a long review about Contra.

The review content is three pages long.

The general content is this editor's love for this game.

At first, he felt that this game was not very good because it looked terrible, had no company LOGO, and only had one producer, which was completely out of line.

But this game surprised him. The quality is not inferior to games from other big companies.

In the end, the review editor named Ozawa Kenji gave this game an evaluation of 8.5 points.

He thinks this game can score nine points or more.

This evaluation is quite high. Two or three pages of content have been evaluating every detail in the game, from the graphics to the richness of monsters, and there are many ways to play.

The most important thing is that this game also supports two-player play. The feeling of playing the game together is completely different. He spent a lot of time with the editorial team in the next few days and almost missed writing for the magazine.

However, he also regrets that this game does not have any plot, only the purest killing. If the producer can complete the plot and some details, he is willing to give a nine or even nine-point five rating.

It can be seen that this editor really likes Contra and is completely immersed in it.

Is your name Kenji Ozawa?

Zuo Zhen wrote down this name and decided to look for this person in the past ten days in Japan.

"So, it was because of this article that Contra's sales increased by 20,000 the next day?"

"Yes, we all agree that the main reason is this, and the sales volume has remained close to 20,000 in the following few days. This is really rare for Zuo Zhen-san."